About

It all started when...

I got a Kodak Brownie camera when I was about seven years old, and later my first of many upgrades--a Kodak Instamatic. I really wanted to capture the Kodachrome jewels my dad got with his rangefinder.

Photography and a love and study of nature got great encouragement from Erna Nixon, a retired Chicago biology teacher who lived near me. She blazed trails in a hardwood hammock between her house and mine. I'd find bugs or plants and she would tell me the Latin names and look up the find in a guidebook. She'd praise my photo compositions and encourage my efforts. Whenever I get back to Florida, I visit her hammock and the county park she helped establish, and rest my soul.

My employment as labor lawyer for the Illinois Education Association gets me around the state a bit and allows me to search for the subtle beauty in the farms, prairies, cities and towns.